Prayer council
July 13th, 2008
posted by Cptn
It may be time to say your prayers to saying your prayers, at the start of council meetings at least. The Devon Humanists have launched a campaign to end to what they call ‘the discriminatory practice of having prayers at council meetings’.
Spokesman for Devon Humanists, Keith Denby, told the PRSD: “The history of local councils in Britain goes back to Saxon times and in the distant past the church was very much a part of local administration, so to begin a Council meeting with prayers would have been very natural. But now in the 21st century, council taxpayers come from many cultures and belief systems and a large proportion of them do not think that religion should have influence in politics.
“According to an IPSOS/Mori poll in 2006, ‘more people think that the government pays too much attention to religious groups and leaders than to any other domestic group’. Having prayers at council meetings is discriminatory even if there is an attempt at multicultural prayers because one or another group will always be left out. The only sensible thing is to do away with them altogether and for people of faith to express that faith in private, not in the public domain.”
Keith Denby continued: “Having prayers at meetings is genuinely off-putting for many people, from the outside it looks as if you need to be part of a special clique to participate in local government either as a member of the public or as a prospective councillor for election. The standing of local councils is diminished by this gulf of understanding between tax payers and their governing councils.”
According to the press release members of Devon Humanists will be writing to local councils to ask them to stop having prayers at meetings, and modern equality and anti-discrimination laws will be cited to show that Councils that continue with prayers at meetings are in breach of the law and of guidance from their own advisory bodies.
It also says that many councils now expressly state an equality and discrimination policy that is directly at odds with continuing to have prayers at council meetings. In many parts of the country, councils have taken note of their own policy statements and have ceased prayers but a surprising number – even the new unitary authorities - have retained prayers as ‘being traditional’.
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Entry Filed under: Society
5 Comments Add your own
1. Kevin | July 17th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Council prayer watch - does your Council start it’s meetings with prayers?
Council Has prayers? Last checked on
Devon County Council Yes 07/07/08
East Devon District Council No 07/07/08
Exeter City Council No 07/07/08
Mid Devon District Council Yes 07/07/08
North Devon District Council Yes 07/07/08
Plymouth City Council No 07/07/08
South Hams District Council Yes 17/06/08
Teignbridge District Council Yes 07/07/08
Torbay Council Yes 07/07/08
Torridge District Council Yes 07/07/08
West Devon Borough Council Yes 07/07/08
Bideford Town Council Yes 07/07/08
Totnes Town Council No 09/07/08
2. Phig Billy | July 19th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Surely prayers can have a purpose even from a humanist perspective… if they urge councillors to examine their consciences and spend a moment’s meditation on the repercussions of their decisions then surely that can only be a positive thing… The problem is that all too often (Christian) prayers begin and end with giving glory to an oblique god for his gloriousness, and I can understand why some people might find these archaic and not particularly useful!
3. Kevin | July 28th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I think that for Humanists it’s the issue of having a formal time for explicitly religious ‘Prayers’ at the beginning of a secular democratic meeting paid for by local taxpayers. In the coming years we’re going to need all the resources of local people, so retaining any practices that may discourage involvement should be questioned. However, the Exeter Diocese response seems to have come from the 1950s : “Prayers at the beginning of a council meeting are a public act which reflects the self-understanding of the English nation; and of its governance as being by ‘the Queen in Parliament under God’, with expressions of this at every formal level of constitutional life.” Only about 6% of us go to church now and less than 50% of us believe in God. A way forward - as you suggest - would be to call a few moments of silence at the beginning of a meeting, during which people can pray, read their papers or just gather their thoughts.
4. Hazel Fuller | July 28th, 2008 at 11:49 am
According to Cllr. Hicks, representing Dartingon on the South Hams Council, it is both his and the Council’s view that all citizens are entitled to holding any opinion but that there is a difference between that and “thrusting that belief onto others”.
He considers that holding prayers before the meetings start their official business cannot be construed as discriminatory since people attending council meetings have a clear choice as to whether to enter the chamber before or after prayers and therefore no reason to feel intimidated.
I believe this misses the point that councillors and members of the public should not have to make such a choice. And if the prayers are always Christian they cannot cover the beliefs of many of their non-Christian or non-believing tax payers.
What has religion got to do with running the affairs of the South Hams or, in fact, with running the country since prayers also take place in the House of Commons and there are Churh of England bishops in the House of Lords.
When I pay my council tax I don’t expect the councillors to be spending time on their private belief in a deity which has no relevance to emptying my dustbins or keeping the streets clean.
A South Devon Humanist
5. David Love | July 29th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Saying prayers before a Council meeting does seem very old-fashioned, and - to someone like me, who has ceased to have religious beliefs - it is also very off-putting. Why not instead have a period of silent reflection? This would surely be acceptable to those of all the different faiths and none.
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